She sat in the window seat, still in her nightgown, though it was mid-afternoon.
A lunch tray sat beside her, untouched.
She didn’t even turn her head at the sound of my entering.
I went over to the window, towering over her. Still, she did not look up at me, just kept her eyes trained on the window glass.
“Are you sick?” I demanded.
She looked pale and listless. Perhaps Elanor hadn’t healed her completely after her foolish adventure into the cold night.
Raewyn’s answer was a hollow whisper. “No.”
“Then what’s the matter with you? Kem says you’re not eating, you won’t read, you won’t get dressed.”
Raewyn didn’t answer, keeping her eyes averted.
I sat on the window seat as well, crowding her, and reached out to grasp her chin. Beneath my fingers, I felt her jaw harden.
“Raewyn. Look at me.”
She was fighting to keep me from turning her face toward me. Tears flooded her eyes, and I let go of her jaw, afraid I’d hurt her.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to…” At a loss for words, I simply said, “Please.”
Finally, Raewyn let her eyes slide over to meet mine.
“What do you want, Pharis?” she asked.
“I want you to eat. I want you to come downstairs and go for walks and talk to the staff at least, if not to me.”
After a long pause, I said, “I want you to be happy.”
“So Sway me. You seem to have no problem with twisting my mind whenever it suits you,” she said flatly.
“I won’t do it—ever again,” I promised. “Just forgive me and try to be happy here.”
She let out a hopeless laugh. “How can I be happy when I am a prisoner?”
A tear rolled down her face, and I felt my heart rip. I reached out to wipe it away. Raewyn flinched at my touch, which tore it further.
“You’re not a prisoner. This is yourhome. You want for nothing here, and if you want more, all you have to do is ask. Everyone here loves you.”
Her eyes darkened. “Not everyone.”
She turned her head away again, staring out at the road leading away from Stormcrest.
“I’m lonely, Pharis. I like everyone here, and I’m glad they like me, but they are not my family.”
Her eyes left the window, returning to me.
“I miss having love in my life. Ineedit.”
The desperate plea in her voice reached inside my chest and shredded what remained of my heart.
“I feel like I’m dying,” she said. “Like I’m vanishing bit by bit.”
Everything inside of me commanded me to take Raewyn in my arms and kiss her, to tell her that shehadlove and always would—for eternity.
